A controversial draft law that would allow foreign citizens to construct and develop apart-hotels in Abkhazia has passed its first  Parliamentary Committee hearing amidst protests outside parliament.

Parliament’s Economic Policy and Reforms Committee discussed and approved the draft law on Wednesday.

Opposition figures reportedly did not learn of the committee hearing until the day before. They submitted requests to allow civil society representatives and political figures in Abkhazia to attend the meeting, but were rejected by MP Rezo Zantaria.

Only state news agencies were allowed to attend and cover the hearing.

Protesters gathered outside parliament to protest against the law and demand entry into what was supposed to be a public hearing. Footage from the protest shows dozens of people shaking the fences surrounding parliament. Verbal altercations between the protesters and police also took place.

At around 13:30, Jansukh Adleiba, a popular activist, fired a gun towards the police before quickly disappearing into the crowd and fleeing the scene. He was detained later that evening west of Sukhumi (Sukhum).

As the protest went on, President Aslan Bzhaniya arrived at parliament to attend the committee hearing, where he openly advocated for the law as a means to counter unemployment in Abkhazia.

‘We have, as I have repeatedly said, up to 140,000 working-age people. Of these, 42,000 people are officially employed. According to our calculations, approximately 30,000 people are self-employed. About 65,000 people have no work, no hope, no employment, and do not have the opportunity to start a family’, said Bzhaniya.

During the hearing, MP Beslan Emurkhba defended the bill saying that the construction of non-residential real estate in eastern Abkhazia would bring it out of ‘crisis mode’.

‘The difficult situation in eastern Abkhazia did not arise today, it arose as a result of the war and the difficult post-war period. All the factories and enterprises that were there were destroyed because Tkuarchal [Tkvarcheli] was bombed. The outflow of population from Tkuarchal began not today, but 15 years ago.’

‘This problem requires a solution. People leave and do not return because they have nowhere to work. New jobs are needed, serious economic assistance to the region is required’, he said.

The law on apart-hotels and apartments spurred controversy in Abkhazia, with critics of the law warning that it would be used to allow foreign nationals, especially Russians, to purchase and develop properties in Abkhazia. Under the current legislation, foreigners are only allowed to own property they have inherited from Abkhaz citizens.

The law’s title was recently changed to the socio-economic development of Ochamchira (Ochamchire), Tkuarchal (Tkvarcheli), and Gali (Gal) districts of Abkhazia.

Yolanta Otyrba, one of the protesters, told Nuzhnaya Gazeta that the law was a crime against Abkhazia.

‘The president probably knows that they are committing a crime, that’s why they don’t allow the public. And why is the parliament behaving this way and all the authorities, well , for the same reason: they understand perfectly well that this is a crime against statehood and against the people of Abkhazia’, she said.

The committee approved the law and recommended it be adopted at the next plenary session. Protesters have expressed concern that parliament could announce an extraordinary session to rush through the draft law’s adoption, just as it did with its ratification of the controversial Pitsunda State Dacha Deal. 

However, during the protest, parliamentary speaker Lasha Ashuba came out of parliament to address the protesters, assuring them that a parliamentary session would not be scheduled in the coming days.

The protest dispersed shortly after.

 For ease of reading, we choose not to use qualifiers such as ‘de facto’, ‘unrecognised’, or ‘partially recognised’ when discussing institutions or political positions within Abkhazia, Nagorno-Karabakh, and South Ossetia. This does not imply a position on their status.